Nelson-Carlisle-Cuban brain trust has proved to be a winning combo

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Illustration by CHRIS MORRIS / Special Contributor

Dallas Sports Legends Photo Galleries: Mark Cuban: -- Brash, controversial and rich beyond any normal human’s comprehension, Cuban hit the local scene like a banshee and changed the rules overnight. He fought the NBA office and commissioner David Stern, insulted league employees and spoke his mind with an unfiltered edge that fans and media loved. Ten years later, and not much has changed. Cuban has toned down his act a little. He doesn’t get fined with nearly the regularity that he used to. But the blunt opinions and observations are still there. And now, finally, a championship.

The taxi driver got lost. Donnie Nelson was late, in more ways than one.

He didn’t arrive at Rick Carlisle’s Indianapolis home until 11:30 p.m. The May 1, 2008, visit had urgency because the Mavericks had fired Avery Johnson the previous day, hours after being ousted from the first round of the playoffs for the second straight year.

The other reason for expediency was that the Mavericks were one of three Carlisle suitors. Chicago and New York had interviewed him earlier that day.

“Rick was our target,” Nelson, the Mavericks’ president of basketball operations, recalls. “We didn’t need or want to bring in a bunch of candidates for a dog and pony show.”

Nelson now chuckles that his mad dash obviously was worthwhile. Saturday was the third anniversary of Carlisle’s introductory news conference, but the coach was too busy preparing the Mavericks for the Western Conference finals to notice.

Luck, timing, good management, money and, above all, players carry an NBA franchise to this juncture. But it’s also about relationships, having the right team, coaching and front office chemistry.

It now appears that the Mark Cuban-Nelson-Carlisle alliance, maligned after two more playoff disappointments, was a good fit after all.

Consider that 35 different players have logged minutes during Carlisle’s tenure, as Cuban and Nelson sought creative ways to retool around Dirk Nowitzki, yet the Mavericks are one rung from reaching the NBA Finals.

The 35-year-old point guard Carlisle inherited, Jason Kidd, is 38 now. Kidd, Nowitzki, Jason Terry and J.J. Barea are the only cogs remaining from Carlisle’s first team, yet Dallas looked like a finely tuned machine in sweeping the two-time defending champion Lakers in the conference semifinals.

“Chemistry is a very fragile thing,” Carlisle says. “It can be found quickly if you can find players with the right combination of talent, personality and commitment to winning.

“Mark and Donnie understand chemistry and have a history of being able to facilitate it quickly.”

When they hired Carlisle, Cuban and Nelson cited his X’s-and-O’s balance, portraying him as a hybrid of his predecessors, the defense-oriented Johnson and offensive genius Don Nelson.

This season, the Mavericks shaded toward the NBA’s upper tier on both sides of the ball. They were one of 11 teams to average at least 100 points per game. Their field goal defense ranked No. 8 in the league.

“What we didn’t want to do was let everything that Avery established on the defensive end go down the drain and have to start over,” Nowitzki said. “I think Rick did a good job of keeping all those principles and trying to play defense and be tough.

“And on the offensive end, push the ball, play a little faster, a little more Western Conference style. And to have a green light for a bunch of guys. I think we found a pretty good mix that’s working, especially now in the playoffs, and hopefully we can ride it out.”

Getting pieces to fit

On the day of Johnson’s firing, Nowitzki remarked that Kidd, one of the most instinctive players in NBA history, had been relegated to “weakside spot-up shooter.”

If Nowitzki wanted a more Western Conference-style offense, Carlisle, on the surface, wouldn’t have seemed the best direction to turn.

He had spent his five-year NBA playing career at Boston, New York and New Jersey in the Eastern Conference. Of his 11 seasons as an NBA assistant, only three were spent in the Western Conference, at Portland in the mid-’90s.

Though he had a more-than-solid 281-211 record as a head coach and had guided Detroit and Indiana to the conference finals, all six of those seasons were spent in the Eastern Conference.

But after getting fired at Indiana in 2007, Carlisle quietly spent the 2007-08 season filling any perceived knowledge or style-of-play gaps. He not only worked as an ESPN studio analyst that season but spent time at the Phoenix Suns’ training camp, observing coach Mike D’Antoni’s high-octane system.

And when Nelson bee-lined to Indianapolis on May 1, 2008, he knew a bonus awaited whichever team got Carlisle’s services. Carlisle had aligned with coaches Dwane Casey and Terry Stotts. They were a package deal, all with prior NBA head coaching experience.

“I’d known those guys for years,” says Nelson, who like Carlisle attended Worcester (Mass.) Academy, though a few years behind him. “When I got to Rick’s house, we just talked ball in the basement.”

Recalls Casey: “We had already met with New York and Chicago and were going through the different scenarios. Donnie was great. He said, ‘Look, this is who we are, this is what we are and where we are in the process.’ The rest is history.”

Cuban flew in the following day to meet with Carlisle, Casey and Stotts and, as Nelson says, “close the deal.”

Casey recalls Cuban doing all of the talking. Carlisle recalls getting in a couple of questions. Both recall being blown away.

“No disrespect to the other teams [Chicago and New York], but Mark’s passion, his knowledge of the game, came through,” Casey says. “Mark sold his program, and he knew he wanted Rick and he went for the jugular.”

Positive impression

All Carlisle knew was Cuban’s public persona, of tending to make extreme comments and never shying from controversy.

“My first impression was a little different than I thought it would be,” Carlisle says. “For me, there was a real sincerity in how he felt about the team and about winning.

“I just got the sense that he was the kind of owner you wanted to work for because he was going to provide you with the tools for success.”

Contract negotiations continued for several days, during which time Carlisle flew his family to Dallas and got the seal of approval — from Nowitzki.

A meeting between Carlisle and Nowitzki at Cuban’s house that was supposed to last maybe a half-hour stretched beyond four hours.

Players have come and gone the last three years. This season alone, nine players who weren’t on last year’s roster saw playing time. But when a franchise’s No. 1 constant is Nowitzki, that’s quite a starting place for any coach.

Coaches of all sports at all levels dream of having their best player also be the hardest worker and most accountable.

“Dirk’s one in a million when it comes to who he is as a person, and the sincerity with which he carries himself,” Carlisle says. “He goes out of his way to talk to and touch everyone he comes in contact with, and does it with an authenticity that transcends anything I’ve ever seen.

“Dirk has geared his whole life around being great at what he does and doing everything possible to facilitate the team’s success. He has a great understanding of his teammates’ abilities and how to enhance them, he understands the game, and has a great intellectual curiosity about ways he can learn more.”

But what about working for Cuban? Since the start of the Lakers series, the owner has purposely not given interviews, though his forceful presence and proximity to the bench haven’t changed.

Over time, Cuban butted heads with Johnson and Don Nelson, though employing three coaches in 11 seasons hardly qualifies him as trigger-happy.

Carlisle says his relationship with Cuban “has evolved, because I’ve gotten to know Mark better, both as a person and the leader of this franchise.

“Mark’s a great communicator. He’s supportive when things are going well, but more importantly when we have had struggles. And he’s available. He’s had a lot of very good insights on the team that have helped me coach through some tough stretches.

“So I’m grateful for that. My hope is to be able to work with him for a long time because it’s been great for me. I’ve learned and grown as a coach working under him and Donnie.”

Johnson and Don Nelson were never quoted as saying anything like that about Cuban. But if this playoff run is an indication, the Cuban-Nelson-Carlisle troika appears to be putting a stamp on a new era, though Nelson politely disagrees that he’s helped Carlisle grow as a coach.

“Grow gray hairs, maybe,” he says with a laugh. “Rick makes an extremely difficult and thankless job look easy. He’s had to push a lot of buttons this year. He’s been a huge part of our success.”

The Nelson-Cuban part of the equation hasn’t changed since Cuban’s 2000 arrival. The owner who eventually parted ways with Don Nelson in 2005 is still Donnie’s boss.

Their relationship, too, has evolved.

“Well, it started with him embracing my father and I in our darkest hour,” Donnie says of Cuban’s 2000 arrival. “Most folks were ready to run us out on a rail for acquiring Dirk and Stevie [Nash].

“What Mark did will never be forgotten. And it’s the reason I’ll be here until Mark gets tired of looking at me. Mark has high expectations for himself and his people, but he never puts them in a position where they can’t be successful.”

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